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Topic: Spray foam - safe? (Read 995 times)

I did a stupid thing. Emulating homebrewers (with entirely different needs), I ripped the plastic door assembly off the inside, looking to squeeze just a bit more usable room on the inside. I knew the insulation was spray foam, and ... well, I won't go into it. A med issue. I ripped the door assembly off and now the door's inside is all spray foam, exposed to the shelves of cheese. There's a tomme in there now.

OK, thanks, Jwalker. I actually like the porosity - want this cave to be a mold-bearing beast (ideally, Mycodore, good kinds).

I wonder how you can foster that. I know that to grow moss on terra cotta pots one is supposed to blend moss and yogurt with water and paint the pots with it. Wonder if you can spray the porous foam with some mycodore, etc. and create colonies! Or, as Yoav would encourage, go get some chunks of wood and handfuls of leaves from outside and put it in there to bring some terroir to it.

I know when I had dedicated Beaufort and tomme caves going (last time), I washed and let dry everything with cultured brine, the same wash I'd use for washing wheels. I can't know whether it was that or just dumb luck that gave me a good toehold on my wheels, but I can say eventually, the caves were rocking with my brine cultures. And it didn't take long. I think Pav gave me the idea.

I like Yoav's idea, a lot. A local maker, Willi Lehner, takes it one further - isolated culture from our area's dirt literally goes into one of his cheeses.

Jwalker, I tell you - I'm coming more and more to believe this. I suffer from total body neuropathy - "non length-dependent small fiber neuropathy," most of my body is in constant pain and weakness. "Regular medicine" has been a tough ride - only recently got a cocktail that helps, and one of its major components is essentially a strong dose of oral lidocaine, bathes my nerves in numbness, basically.

I'm saying this because I've lately been watching Fresh, Farmageddon, re-watching King Corn and so forth and paying a helluva lot more attention. I'm of the mind to make that kind of radical change to wholly natural foods, wholly whole foods, wholly raw foods where I can get them. I'm starting to truly believe in the notion that we've trained our bodies to be so prissy in warding off any and all infections, that, evolutionarily, we're creating a species pool far weaker than our predecessors.

Anyway, I'm blathering on. It's been pretty hellish, what I've been going through, and I wonder if a good part of what I need is literally, right under my nose.

Paul, that sounds really difficult to be experiencing! I'm sorry to hear about it but glad you're sharing. The stuff you see in the movies you mentioned is a large part of why we grow most of our food. These days it's not easy to get good quality food and while it's impossible to completely avoid GMO genetics, since they are now endemic thanks to them being released without enough testing, I do avoid consuming them knowingly and I am pretty careful about it although I know if I eat out it's a crapshoot so I just assume I'm getting a dose. Our planet's soils are, for the most part, mineral deficient also. Time for another ice age to grind up the rocks and spread it all over the planet to remineralize the soils. It's a natural cycle and we're nearing the end of soil quality that can produce healthy enough plant life to keep everything in stasis at this part of the cycle.

For diet, I appreciate Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions Cookbook and the work of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride (I think I have her name right). The second reference is pretty easy to find on YouTube or by googling the GAPS Diet. She's all about the micro-flora in our gut and how to eat right to feed them and regain health.

Anyway......about cheese microflora.....I do find it funny how careful we are with sanitation and then how we put those wheels into caves full of all KINDS of microflora! It's one of the reasons I can't get overwhelmed with sterilizing everything and of course, part of the reason that works is that I don't sell my cheese. So far I haven't brought dirt into my cheese fridge but I did use birch bark to bind a couple of cheeses and I'll attach photos to show the rind. One was a result of me working on the Reblochon recipe with some either fails on following the recipe or maybe I jumped ship at some point.....anyway.....it's got a very nice rind on it. The other is a shitake Brie that was stupendous. I did not boil or steam the birch bark. It came right out of the woods from fallen trees or living trees.

Thanks for the nod to these nutrition books and thoughts, Tiarella, will check them out.

And MAN does those cheeses look incredible! I see "fail" nowhere! My wife, Estonian, has family all over the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and mont d'or is one I'd love to make....birch is everywhere on her sister's acres, so I planned on doing some foraging. I always held off from the "no, no, no" of using birch, v. spruce. I'm too uptight....your cheeses are seriously incredible!

Thanks, Tiarella. Love it.

Paul

Edit: BTW, earth's dimineralization, couldn't agree more. I attended our state's Grazing Conference couple years back, and the biggest takeaway I got is how much of farmland is merely a dead substrate to stick plants into, as opposed to a lush, microbial-rich community that nourishes the plant, and so, us. I hope it's not too late. I was encouraged to hear the speech by ag economists, ag ecologists and microbiologists that it's not too late - but it's getting there. I'll hang to the "not too late" part.

I would use what's available. I've used oak cambium, lightly toasted and re-steamed with awesome results because oak is everywhere on my land. I know Yoav has used walnut. All different, but all tasty.

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Taking an extended leave (until 2015) from the forums to build out my farm and dairy. Please e-mail or PM if you need anything.

[quote author=ArnaudForestier I'm starting to truly believe in the notion that we've trained our bodies to be so prissy in warding off any and all infections, that, evolutionarily, we're creating a species pool far weaker than our predecessors.

[/quote] I couldn't agree with you more. I have been telling people this same thing for years.here is a cheese. Pete